Introduction: The theory deficit in translingual studies

From the Goncourt to the Nobel, from Booker to Pulitzer, an astonishing proportion of winners of national literary awards today are people writing in an acquired language whose work does not fit neatly into the nation-state paradigm. Many others allow their language of writing to be cross-fertilized by idioms, dialects, and literary traditions that most would consider alien to it. Yet, until recently, only a handful of scholars, such as Forster (1970), Steiner (1975), Klosty Beaujour (1989), Seyhan (2000), Kellman (2000) and Oustinoff (2001), identified this linguistic mingling as a distinct literary phenomenon.